Holding Angels

I am going to try to make this blog as private as possible out of respect for those involved. However, I wanted to share because it had such a huge impact on me.
On Wednesday, May 6th, my newest little nephews were born. They were only 22 weeks old, weighing about a pound each. They were too little to survive. We are all stunned, shocked, & deeply saddened at this loss. I was able to hold them for a few minutes & I've never experienced anything quite like it. As the volunteer photographer so eloquently put it, "Now you know what it feels like to hold angels." (*A special little side note to all those volunteer photographers out there who specialize in these situations: I am so amazed at what you do! It brings a little bit of comfort knowing those babies can be remembered in a more concrete way. Thank you!*)

Erin's Wedding

A few weeks ago, my good friend Erin Black got remarried. She had lost her husband in a motorcycle accident a while back so we were all very happy to see her so happy again :) Here are some pictures.
The wedding was at this pretty cool building in Lindon. The actual ceremony took place on the top floor which had a partially open roof. There was a canvas covering to protect it from the snow. There was a leak, though, and this very tall guy had to switch the pail out because it was over flowing and getting some seats wet.

We were all sure he'd spill it all over himself...

Erin walking down the aisle with her dad.
First kiss as husband and wife. The place where the ceremony was backlit with the sun so some of the pictures didn't turn out very well.

Cake time!

High school buds: (L-R) Arika, Erin, me, Mary (Erin's sister, my sister-in-law)

Seven Months

Wow, time sure does fly! Steven is now seven months old! It seems like just yesterday he was born & yet sometimes he seems so much older that I forget that he's still a little baby. He's not quite crawling yet but as mentioned below, he's getting close. He's actually fairly mobile now, which makes putting him on the bed for any amount of time a bit scary. I would describe his movements as more of an army crawl than anything else. I'll have to get a video of him and post it on here.
He got his first two teeth about a week ago! He was actually very good when they were coming in, which I was very grateful for.
I don't have too many pictures because I've already posted most of them but here are some cute ones.
This was all Josh's doing. It's one of those stickers with instructions on how to activate your new credit card

Help Mom! I'm in jail!
Yeah...he's learned how to stand himself up and hold onto the edge of his crib. This is even more scary when he does it on the front side (lower rail).

Return of the faux hawk! (he actually has enough hair to do it now!)

Oh, the faces of my son

Is it just me, or does it look a little like he's working on his evil laugh?

Work out!

So Steven is starting to get up into a crawling position. He doesn't quite get that he needs to move his hands AND his feet. He'll get up and then just launch himself forward. It's pretty funny. The coolest thing, though, is that he gets up on his toes rather than his knees. He's gotten to his knees a few times but mostly it's his toes. He was doing this the other night & Josh commented that it looked like he was doing a push up. The following are of my son "working out". ;)As Josh puts it, this first one looks like Steven is just starting his push up routine & is really concentrating....this one looks like he's at the end of his set of push ups & is really working hard for this one...

Anyway, I thought these were cute & wanted to share! :)

I couldn't resist

Here are some more pictures. What can I say? My boy is just too cute!
Look at those baby blues! Watch out ladies!! ;)

How funny is this picture??

...and this one too

Stupid cold weather! I actually had to put him back in his little bear suit. He looks very cute in it, though :)
The crawling stage is creeping up on us!

Steven likes to find ways out of his bouncy seat...

Steven thoroughly enjoys this bouncy jumping thing (I have NO idea what it's actually called!). Thanks Mary!!!

Vote!

Go to this website to vote for Steven. You know you want to! ;)
https://www.greatamericanphotocontest.com/voter1/index.aspx?referid=EmailFriends&p=1177991&x=.JPG

Happy half birthday!

I cannot believe that as of yesterday, my little Steven is already 6 months old! That is very crazy to me. He is increasingly fun to be with & basically the only time he's sad is when he's hungry, tired, or not getting enough attention. He is a people person & loves the attention & smiling right back at people. I could not be more grateful for how great of a child he is! Aside from eating solids now, here are some milestones & pictures from the past month.
No, we are not abusing our child. This little red mark is a HICKIE he gave himself! He really likes sucking & chewing on things...

Finally able to sit up! He still topples over but he can sit on his own for several minutes before reaching too far for something & doing a face plant.
This is what his face looks like a good portion of the time
Josh thought it was funny that while rolling around, he had skewed up his hat.

I thought it was a good photo op & Steven did not disappoint ;)

Father & son taking a little nap. Last night Josh wouldn't give Steven to me so Josh could eat even though he hadn't eaten since lunch (it was around 10 at night). He simply said, "I like holding my son!" :)

Ah, the joys of bouncing!

Yes, that is a bit of carrot on his nose

He will stick just about anything in his mouth. This picture doesn't do justice to how crazy he was getting on that elephant.

This is a still shot of how he gets his right leg (or both of them) kicking like crazy to get himself to bounce. A video of the actual bouncing will follow.